Zero-point energy is the energy of the vacuum. Disturbing the vacuum results in a change in the zero-point energy. In 1948, Casimir considered the change in the zeropoint energy when the vacuumis disturbed by two parallelmetal plates. The plates disturb the vacuum by restricting the quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. Casimir found that the change in the zero-point energy implies that the plates are attracted to each other. With the recent advances made in the experimental verification of this remarkable result, theoretical interest has been rekindled. In addition to the original parallel plate configuration, several other boundaries have been studied. In this thesis, two novel boundaries are considered: elliptic-cylindrical and spheroidal. The results for these boundaries lead to the conjecture that zero-point energy does not change for small deformations of the boundary that preserve volume. Assuming the conjecture, it is shown that zero-point energy plays a stabilizing role in quantum chromodynamics, the leading theory of the strong interaction.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/269359 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Kitson, Adrian Robert |
| Publisher | Massey University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds